The Alto School of M. N. Terian at the Moscow Conservatory: Trends in the Development of Creative Potential

Introduction. The Viola School of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, founded by V. V. Borisovsky, is a remarkable phenomenon in the history of Russian musical art, and is of undoubted scholarly interest. The 1920s and 1930s were a period of active development for the viola school, marked by an expansion of the faculty, growth in professional skill, and the development of its distinctive style. During these years, the artistic individuality of many of its performers and teachers was formed. The purpose of the article is to uncover unknown facts about the biography and creative work of one of the outstanding representatives of the viola school, M. N. Terian (1905–1987), and to characterize his contribution to its development. Materials and Methods. The research material is based on documents from the Moscow Conservatory archives related to M. N. Terian: fragments of his personal file, musical manuscripts recording his own compositional experiments and works by other composers dedicated to him (N. K. Chemberdzhi). All sources are being introduced into scholarly circulation for the first time. The study is conducted within the framework of musical culturology. The author utilizes a historical and biographical method, as well as musical textual criticism and source study. Results and Discussion. The historical and cultural boundaries of viola performance in Russian musical art are defined, along with genre and repertoire features of compositional and performance creativity, the pedagogical process, and mastery. The professional characteristics of the viola school at the Moscow Conservatory are established. The characteristic features associated with the objective and subjective profile of its development and the cultural context of the era are analyzed. The features of the pre-war educational process and new benchmarks shaping the understanding of the creative evolution and development of the viola repertoire are reconstructed. Conclusion. Referring to the work of M. N. Terian as a comrade and like-minded collaborator of V. V. Borisovsky is extremely important in the development of a contemporary musician who embraces the instrument (the viola) in a broad and multifaceted manner – in its inexhaustible spiritual and sonic diversity and conceptual interpretation. The materials introduced into scholarly circulation in this article provide a valuable resource for addressing current theoretical and practical issues related to the art of viola performance. They may also be of importance to musicologists researching the history of the Moscow Conservatory and the history of Russian musical art in general.